Mobile advertising remains the last frontier -- users just haven't bought the idea that they need to give advertisers access to their mobile devices. That doesn't keep telcos from looking at the market as their possible redemption though. Here are excerpts from a story bywww.telecoms.com:

"When you consider that mobile is the only media platform currently lacking advertising as a revenue stream, it is clearly a very exciting greenfield opportunity for brands to get in front of a very large audience. For MNOs it is certainly a way of generating revenues and can be used as a way of augmenting mobile content to encourage uptake. Moreover, current generation handsets are more than capable of displaying advertising in a manner that is of an acceptable quality to brands and, as with internet-based advertising, [it] provides a high degree of transparency relating to return on investment. However, the potential to alienate subscribers with badly executed mobile advertising is not to be taken lightly."

So says Nick Holland, analyst with research and advisory group Pyramid Research (http://www.pyramidresearch.com).

I have yet to see any worthwhile advertising on a mobile device. The Pollyanna visions of a world where advertisers have access to mobile users 24/7 is just that--a fantasy. Who would allow that kind of intrusion into their life? On the other hand, there are numerous ways we can use mobile devices to add value to people in a useful way that can be funded by advertisers.

After all, as Mike Baker, CEO of mobile marketing technology company Enpocket said to us: "I find amusing surveys that ask consumers whether they want to see ads on their mobile phones - of course they don't!" You could also say that they didn't want them in most other media before they got used to them. However, Holland warns (...read more...)